The present invention relates generally to inventory management and, more particularly, to a method, system, and computer program product for performing balancing and redistribution of excess inventory.
Inventory management processes can be very complex, particularly with for large enterprises that have multiple sites situated in geographically diverse locations (e.g., world wide). Generally, when performing planning or forecasting operations, these sites look directly to existing suppliers (typically local suppliers) for their inventory replenishment needs. While in some cases this may be the most suitable course of action, at other times there may be readily available excess inventory at another site location. The ordering sites may, of course, inquire around at other site locations for a needed inventory item prior to sending its forecasts to suppliers. However, in today's on demand market, when inventory items require near instantaneous replenishment, this would not be a practical solution. Additionally, for enterprise models that handle, e.g., dozens of world-wide manufacturing locations (including forecasts comprising millions of rows of data), and calculate weekly forecasts over a long-term horizon, at least some degree of automation of the planning process is needed.
What is needed, therefore, is a way to improve inventory management processes that enable the efficient balancing and redistribution of excess inventory at an early stage in the forecasting process.